Communal life and communal activities are deeply rooted in African culture. Both internally driven and externally supported development activities have long drawn on this communal tradition, for example to build village-level infrastructure or to organize groups to clear land. Across sub-Saharan Africa, groups come together for many different purposes, such as funeral or burial societies, around various livelihood activities, and for savings and credit.

This report focuses on what we can learn from studies of community-level women’s groups in Uganda. We present the findings of a scoping review to examine the evidence base and evidence gaps on women’s groups in Uganda. We appraised the evidence base on the impact, cost-effectiveness, and implementation of women’s groups in Uganda to understand both the evidence that exists and the evidence gaps that remain. In addition, we present analysis of the pathways through which women’s groups can achieve their various objectives. We define a women’s group as a group of women who voluntarily come together to take part in joint activities around a common purpose, such as savings, livelihoods, or health. Although savings and other microfinance groups are the most prominent women’s groups in Uganda, Ugandan women also participate in various other groups for different purposes, primarily with a focus on health and agriculture. Results from a recent nationally representative survey showed that 58% of Ugandan communities have at least one woman’s group, and over half of communities had savings and credit groups which frequently have a majority women membership (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2018, pp. 184). Further, an assessment of women’s savings group participation rates using FinScope survey data indicates that 39% of Ugandan women participate in savings groups (de Hoop et al., 2020).

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